Pierogi with bilberries, blueberries or strawberries

In the following recipe I describe how to make the pierogi with bilberries and/or with strawberries. I put all this 'fruity possibilities' in one recipe, since the way of preparation is analogous. Anyway, I recommend You to make at one go, both pierogi with bilberry filling, as well as those with strawberries. It would be real sweet dumplings feast.

Ingredients in this recipe:

• 0.5 kg of strawberries
• or 0.5 kg of bilberries or blueberries
• sugar
• potato starch (optional)
• salt, a spoonful of oil for cooking pierogi
• pierogi dough (see our recipe)
• some stuff for decoration: sweetened cream or yoghurt, raw fruits, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
•  takes 2 h

Recipe:

Rinse fruits with water and wash it.
Cut up 0.5 kg of strawberries into little pieces. Use fresh strawberries of good quality. Stale strawberries results in bitter aftertaste of pierogi and spoil the taste. We use the whole bilberries - don't cut them nor crush. Blueberries since those are larger might be used halved as I suppose (I never made pierogi with blueberries).
Put cut strawberries in a bowl, whereas 0.5 kg of blueberries in second one. Pour few teaspoonfuls of sugar into bowls with strawberries and gently mix. Taste, whether the amount of the sugar is sufficient. You can add more, if you want pierogi to be really sweet. I usually give quite large amounts of sugar. Don't add sugar to bowl with bilberries since those tends to excrete too much too watery juice. Making pierogi is more difficult with such a mixture. Strawberries mixed with sugar should stand some time (in the meantime prepare pierogi dough). Thanks to that the sugar will manage to dissolve in the juice which will sail out of fruits. You can add a teaspoon of the potato starch into both bowl and then mix precisely. This is optional. Starch makes the fruit sauce within pierogi more dense after cooking.
We prepare pierogi dough according to the standard recipe with is published at Tasting Poland. You can however try out some modification which I recommend: instead of boiling water use 0.75 of the cup of hot milk. The dough will have more delicate taste. That's the way some Poles prepare dough for sweet pierogi.
Lay portions of blueberries on dough circles and add quarter to half a teaspoonful of sugar. Put portions of strawberry 'mousse' on other circles.
Glue pierogi very carefully. It is important, since pierogi with fruits has a greater tendency of opening during cooking, than pierogi with any other filling.
Put water with the addition of salt and the spoonful of oil on the cooker. Thanks to oil pierogi won't get glued to each other. After few minutes, when water starts boiling we throw pierogi, one after another. Stir every couple of minutes so that they don't stick to the pan. When the dumplings will flow to the surface we still cook 2-3 minutes. Take one pierog out and check, whether the dough is soft. If not - continue cooking for a while.
Now drain pierogi, lay on plates and decorate with additions. A great freedom exists in choosing what we will pour over our pierogi. In general Poles use a sweetened cream or yoghurt (sweetened natural yoghurt or fruit yoghurt). You can sprinkle with brown sugar, as well as slices of raw fruits. Pierogi with fruits, in contrast with other kinds, is not refried on the frying pan. It is also very tasty when cooled off. Then it is possible to serve pierogi with addition of the whipped cream. Serving the cooled fruit dumplings with vanilla ice cream is another possibility. Obviously you can invent your own ways of serving too.

I hope that you find this fruit pierogi recipe useful. Enjoy your meal! Smacznego! :)

Source:

http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/fruit_pierogi.html

Pierogi with (white) mushrooms and eggs

Ingredients in this recipe:

• pierogi dough prepared according to standard recipe
• 1-2 onion for stuffing and sprinkling fried pierogi
• 300 g of white mushrooms
• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• 50 g of butter for frying onion and mushrooms
• shredded parsley leaves
• salt
• pepper
• breadcrumbs may be needed
• roux

 
takes 1.5 h

Recipe:

Peel 50 g of onion and cut into cubes.
Rinse white mushrooms and also cut up into cubes.
Melt the spoonful of butter on the frying pan and throw onion. Brown it.
Now you can throw mushrooms onto the frying pan.
Add half a cup of pure water, mix and put a lid on the frying pan. Stew gently warming for 15-20 minutes.
In the meantime cook two hard-boiled eggs.
Cut hard-boiled eggs with knife into small pieces.
At that time mushrooms and onion should be ready. Remove the frying pan from the cooker and mix with eggs.
Add portion of shredded parsley leaves, salt and black pepper. Stir precisely. Season to taste.
If the stuffing is too thin add breadcrumbs with little portions and mix, until more dense consistency.
Cut circles out of dough prepared according to our recipe. Arrange filling in the middle and fold pierogi gluing its edges carefully.
Cook pierogi on salted water. When pierogi are ready take them out of water and sift out.
Dice half an onion. Throw onion and cooked pierogi onto frying pan with melted butter (or warm oil) and fry. Fry pierogi from both sides, until browned.
Put pierogi on plates and sprinkle with onion, with which we fried them.
You can also prepare the roux. Fry breadcrumbs on butter and pour it over pierogi. However, this is optional. Serve pierogi with eggs and mushrooms filling when hot.

I hope that you find this mushrooms+eggs pierogi recipe useful. Enjoy your meal! Smacznego! :)

Source:

http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/pierogi_mushroom_eggs.html

Uszka for the Christmas Eve clear borscht

The following recipe is about uszka with mushroom filling. The Polish cuisine offers two kinds of Christmas Eve uszka: one with mushrooms only and second one with cabbage and mushrooms, which is at least the same popular. I do describe how to make mushroom-cabbage filling here - that supplements the following recipe for uszka.

Ingredients in this recipe:

• 2 cups of the wheat flour
• some sunflower oil
• 100 g of dried mushrooms (best is bolete)
• 2-3 onions
• butter or oil for frying onion
• 1 egg

Recipe – at the beginning we prepare filling for Christmas Eve uszka

Prepare 100 g of dried mushrooms, best is boletus (Boletus edulis). In Poland for the production of national dishes such as pierogi, uszka, sauces and traditional mushroom soups those typical 'mushrooms' you probably know (Agaricus) are not used. Please, read my commentary on Polish edible mushrooms and the tradition of the mushroom hunting. Since in many English-speaking countries the access to some species of mushrooms is firmly limited you can boldly use white mushrooms (Agaricus) for your uszka.
Rinse mushrooms with cold water. If you use white mushrooms from grocery go to point 4. If you managed to get traditional dried mushrooms put them into the pot with warm water. Wait 15 minutes and then start heating up. Cook mushrooms, until become soft.
Drain soaked mushrooms off on the colander and wait the moment so that they cool.
In the meantime peel 2 or 3 onions and cut carefully into tiny cubes.
Now cut mushrooms up into very thin slices. Don't grind them, don't crush or tear.
Melt and heat a little portion of butter or oil on a frying pan.
When butter will heat up throw the onion and brown gently under the lid. It should last for about 5 minutes.
Next throw mushrooms chopped up and mix with onion.
Add one egg and mix. Fry mixing constantly.
In the moment, when egg is curdled add salt and pepper. Taste your stuffing and season some more, all the way to taste that satisfies you.
Remove the frying pan from the cooker and let it cool.
After about five minutes, when filling is still hot add one teaspoonful of butter and mix filling precisely.

Uszka dough (quite similar to pierogi dough, though)

Build a heap on the pastry board by sieving two cups of the wheat flour through the sieve.
Add three drops of the sunflower oil.
Pour some warm, boiled water onto the flour. Mix with hands trying to form a dough. Add warm water portion by portion, until you get the dough which is elastic and 'kneadable'. It should not however be too soft.
Knead the dough, until you crumble all pellets, and the color is uniform (this might be difficult and laborious task; it is worthwhile dragging some man to the work ;)
Form one knob from the dough and put it into the bowl. Cover the bowl with the clean cloth and put back on 20 minutes.
After about 20 minutes you can start folding uszka
Take the dough out of the bowl, put on the lightly floured board and roll up most thinly, as you can - the thickness should be 2 to 3 mm.
From such clump cut out the circles (about 5 cm of diameter), with the appropriately selected cup.
We put with a teaspoon a portion of filling on every circle (not so much that 'gluing' dough is not possible, and not so stingily that you can't taste filling eating uszka; this is a matter of experience and by third, fourth uszka you will already know how much filling you can still wrap up with the dough).
Wrap up the filling with the dough in order to form a semicircle. Join together the dough with your fingers, closing the filling inside. This stage is identical to pierogi (with the difference that uszka are smaller).
Now wrap two opposite horns up and join together with fingers forming something like an envelope. It's uszka indeed. It should be little, like a head of a teaspoon.
When uszka are ready we should cook them. At first boil salted water. When water boils, throw uszka one after another.
When uszka will flow to the surface of water cook them one or two minutes more. Drain off on the colander. Hot uszka are usually thrown directly into plates with the clear red borscht, while cooled uszka should be heated up in the pot with the borscht being warmed. Serve about 5 pieces of uszka for 250 ml of clear borscht.
One-time preparing large amounts of uszka and next freezing them in the freezer is a common practice in a lot of Polish families. They can last a few months in it. I hope that you find this uszka recipe useful. Enjoy your meal! Smacznego! :)

Source:

http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/mush_uszka.html

Pierogi or uszka with mushroom & cabbage filling

Ingredients in this recipe:

• 1 kg of the sauerkraut
• 2-3 cups of dried mushrooms or much more raw white mushrooms from grocery
• 2 medium-sized onions
• oil or butter for frying onion
• some salt
• some black pepper
• 8-10 bay leafs
• spoonful of breadcrumbs (optional)

takes 1 h

Recipe:

Rinse dried mushrooms with cold water and throw into the pot with hot water. Leave for 15-20 minutes.
Put the pot on the cooker and cook mushrooms, until become soft.
Drain mushrooms off on the colander. Collect water in the second pot.
Throw the sauerkraut into water, in which mushrooms were cooked. Cook it, until become soft.
In the meantime cut mushrooms carefully into small stripes.
Drain the cabbage off on the sieve. You can pour water out. Carefully shred the cabbage into small stripes.
Peel two medium-sized onions and cut into small dices.
Melt some butter or oil on the frying pan.
Throw onion to hot butter / oil and fry about 5 minutes to achieve delicate browning.
Next throw the cabbage and mushrooms. Mix precisely.
Add the salt and grinded black pepper to the taste. Add 8-10 bay leafs. Some Poles add a tablespoon of breadcrumbs, but it is not compulsory and I, personally, have never tried it.
Put a lid on the frying pan and stew about 10 minutes.
Put the filling to the bowl and let it cool off. The filling is ready to go when cooled but you will need to get rid of bay leafs before folding pierogi or uszka.

I hope that you find this mushroom-cabbage pierogi/uszka filling useful. Enjoy your meal! Smacznego! :)

Source:

http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/mush_cabbage_filling.html

Pierogi with meat filling

Ingredients in this recipe:

• 0.5 kg of beef
• 3 carrots
• 1 parsley
• 1 leek
• half of a celery
• 1 onion
• butter or oil for frying
• 1 roll
• parsley leaves
• two eggs
• salt & pepper
• pierogi dough
• crackling or fried onion

 
takes 1.5 h


Recipe:

Wash 0.5 kg of beef without the bone. Put in salted water. Cook, until the meat softens.
Prepare wloszczyzna vegetables: peel and cut into small stripes three carrots, one parsley, one leek and half a celery. Throw this vegetables into stock with meat and leave gently cooking on half an hour. I usually don't buy raw vegetables in such situations. I prefer buying in a grocery those already cut up frozen vegetables.
While the meat is being cooked with vegetables peel onion and cut it into cubes.
Fry onion on the frying pan with the addition of butter, until it lightly browns itself.
Take the meat out of stock and tear into smaller pieces.
Put one roll into the bowl and fill with stock. Wait a while, as far as the roll will become soaked. Then take it out of the bowl, drain and add to the meat.
Add also fried onion and precisely mix everything.
Grind the blend of onion, meat and roll in a meat mincer.
Chop parsley leaves up and add to stuffing.
Break two raw eggs into a meat mixture.
Add salt and grinded black pepper. Mix. Season to taste.
If your stuffing is too dry add some stock.
Now arrange this stuffing with teaspoon on pierogi dough circles and carefully glue the dough, forming pierogi.
Cook pierogi on salted water. After floating to the surface cook until become soft. Then sift out.
We pan-fry the cooked pierogi. Use butter or sunflower oil. Fry pierogi from both sides - from time to time turning from side to side. Fry pierogi, until become firmly browned from both sides.
Lay pierogi on plates. To make the dish more tasty sprinkle pierogi with crackling prepared in the meantime, or use onion fried to gold. Many people like to eat meat filled pierogi with ketchup, mustard or other nice sauces. You can try it, but it is worthwhile knowing that such a way of eating isn't truly traditional.

I hope that you find this pierogi with meat filling recipe useful. Enjoy your meal! Smacznego! :)

Source:

http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/pierogi_with_meat.html

Polish pierogi dough

Introductory word: usually we make the pierogi dough without eggs as ingredients. However, in some recipes there are eggs, and indeed, they are used in some Polish households. The truth is that the addition of whole eggs (or just yolks) to the pierogi dough makes it more rigid when cooked. For most people it is not an advantage, so we recommend using the traditional recipe, without eggs. It results in a softer dough, which – despite its delicacy – will not fall apart.

It is also worth mentioning that if you're going to make pierogi dough for sweet pierogi (those filled with fruit or sweetened cheese), you can take hot milk and use it instead of about half of the volume of hot water required. The effect is a matter of taste, so you might like to try both ways. Anyway – smacznego!

By the way, do not hesitate to visit our main articles: Pierogi – probably the most popular Polish food ever and How to make pierogi? Authentic pierogi recipes to find out more tips and tricks about pierogi dough… and pierogi in general.


Ingredients in this recipe:

• 3 cups of wheat flour (all-purpose)
• half a teaspoon of salt
• 0.75 cup of boiling water
• 0.25 cup of cold water
• half a teaspoon of oil

takes 30-40 min — makes ~30 pierogi


Recipe:

Pour 3 cups of wheat flour into the bowl. Pour the flour through a sieve to separate any lumps and in order to aerate the flour. Thanks to the latter, your pierogi dough will be softer and more delicate in flavor. Then add half a teaspoon of salt.
Pour 0.75 of cup of boiling water into the bowl, while vigorously stirring the mixture with a fork or wooden spoon. At this stage, it is normal that lumps of flour will form and surface – crumble them down with the fork. Cover the bowl with a cotton cloth and set aside for about 5 minutes.
After 5 min, add a quarter of a cup of cold water, give it a stir, and crumble down the lumps (if any). Once again cover the pierogi dough with a cotton cloth, but this time set is aside for 15 minutes.
After 15 min, add half a teaspoon of vegetable oil (canola, sunflower or olive oil). Roll up your sleeves – it's time for some work. Knead the pierogi dough until it becomes a smooth and uniform mass. In general, it takes 5 to 10 minutes, and at this stage a pair of men's hands may be quite useful. When finished, the pierogi dough should be homogeneous, stretchy and a bit adhesive.
Now, the dough is ready to prepare pierogi. Roll out the dough on a pastry board (or simply on a table) until you reach the thickness of about one-tenth of an inch (2-3 millimeters). However, before you start rolling it out, you should flour the pastry board. Thanks to that the pierogi dough won't adhere or tear. However, remember that one side of the dough should remain clean. You want it to cling on to itself while folding pierogi.
Cut circles out of the pierogi dough by using a cup. Place the filling in the middle of every circle and fold it to form pierogi.
Collect scraps of pierogi dough, knead again, roll out and repeat steps 5-7.


Having made your pierogi, what is left to be done is to boil them and fry if that's what suits you. Despite of the simplicity of ingredients, some say that the pierogi dough is a fickle thing. I do not have bad experiences. However, if it happens to you to do it wrong from time to time, do not give up. It might require some experience, but everyone can become an expert by trial-and-error. I wish you good luck and hope that you find this pierogi dough recipe useful. Enjoy your meal! Smacznego! :)


Source:

http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/pierogi_dough_1.html

Bigos from young cabbage

This is a recipe for a very 'soft' variant of bigos (Polish hunter's stew). Made of young cabbage and stewed for a short time, therefore really easy and fast to prepare. Keeps rather light brown color instead of dark brown (characteristic for a traditional Polish bigos stewed for many hours - recipe in the future, I promise ;) Of course it is usually eaten 'alone', I mean with bread or rolls and sausages (if you like). But can be also, and often is, served as an addition to kotlet schabowy or other meat dish (without sausages then;).


Ingredients in this recipe:

•     4 young cabbages
•     0.7 kg of lean pork
•     0.25 kg of smoked bacon
•     0.7 kg of thin sausages (kielbasa)
•     1 carrot, 1 parsley, half of celery, 1 onion
•     1 bunch of dill
•     3 bay leaves, 4 grains of allspice, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of oil
•     sugar, salt & pepper

Recipe:

    Cut pork and onion into small pieces. Fry in oil.
    Put fried meat & onion into a pot, add small amount of water and simmer for 30 minutes.
    Cut cabbage into small pieces. To the boiling meat and onion add: cabbage, diced bacon, vegetables, whole bay leaves and allspice.
    Boil the whole mixture until cabbage is soft.
    Season your bigos with salt, pepper and a little sugar.
    Before serving add sausages (kielbasa) to the pot to make them warm. Chop dill and sprinkle bigos served on plates (or serve chopped dill on a separate saucer).

In Polish families it is quite usual to serve kotlet schabowy with an even more 'soft' version of bigos, which is made without meat at all. This is actually quite similar recipe to that one above, but there's no bacon nor pork. I usually add stock cubes to improve the taste although it's against rules :P However, what I wanted to tell you is that such meatless food is most often called 'duszona kapusta' (simply means 'stewed cabbage'), not bigos. So we eat 'kotlet schabowy z duszona kapusta' (Polish pork schnitzel with stewed cabbage) very often - these two taste really great together (plus some boiled potatoes as usually). And what we call bigos, both a traditional one and bigos from a young cabbage, is a Polish food that contains meat by definition. So… OK. It's already to much :) Good luck!

I hope that you find this bigos from young cabbage recipe useful. Enjoy your meal! Smacznego! :)

Source:

http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/bigos_young_cabbage.html